When you get caught up in another dependency's orbit, you lose agency.
The dependency that was earlier a commodity is now a necessity.
There's never a 100% alignment between you and the dependency. The great thing about railroads is that it can take you from point A to point B. The terrible thing is that you can't get to point C. So you have to get off the railroad and start bushwacking.
Dependencies have a mind of their own. They're opinionated. Be aware of their influence on your thinking.
I recently rebuilt my website with minimal dependencies. OpenBSD server serving simple HTML. But simple wasn't easy. My previous website ran on a bloated framework with multiple packages, all running on a giant engine. In this case, complex was easy. But I relied on the framework's rules, the engine's limitations, and the packages' benevolence.
When I took it all down and started from scratch, I realized how little I knew. How much the dependencies masked my deficiencies. How, earlier, the dependencies were really my only option. It's a little lie I told myself: that I didn't need you, I just chose to use you.
It's tempting to swap to a smaller package. One less bloated. But better isn't best. Don't settle for better.
I realize I'll never have best. My website still has hardcoded values marked by sloth, and ineffiencies marked by ignorance. But I can bushwack towards best now. I have no dependency interia.